Captain John Campbell served in many parts of the British Empire, including India, Burma, the West Indies, the Mediterranean, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Like many of his fellow officers, he took an interest in Aboriginal people who lived in the boundaries of Britain’s empire. Convinced that Aboriginals and their culture would soon “die out,” European artists, like Campbell, were determined to document their “traditional life” before it was too late. During the six years he spent in New Brunswick, Campbell did just this in a series of watercolors depicting Maliseet people. This painting portrays a Maliseet winter camp, possibly at Kingsclear.

Biographies

Considered to be the founder of the St. Mary’s First Nation, Gabriel Acquin travelled to England several times forming friendships with royalty, but continued to serve as a hunter, guide, and interpreter in New Brunswick.

Born into an influential family in 1798, Jared Tozer Jr. was a lumber contractor and public figure on the Miramichi. His father, Jared Tozer Sr., was a native of Connecticut, who had fought as a Patriot in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) before being drawn to New Brunswick in 1789 by the economic opportunities of the new province.

Like all members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Noel Bear inherited a vast hunting range, stretching from New Brunswick southward to Maine and westward to the St. Lawrence River. By the time of his death, his inheritance had shrunk to a few acres of land.